Parsley for the winter: how to prepare greens according to the best recipes and preserve flavor

Freezing

Freezing herbs and roots allows you to save up to 90% of the vitamins and essential oils contained in parsley. This should be done on time: branches with leaves are frozen in the summer, while the roots are dug up and harvested in the fall.

The step-by-step instruction looks like this:

1. Cut greens are sorted out, discarding random blades of grass, dry and sluggish leaves, twigs.
2. Then all the collected material is washed, dried to remove excess moisture. This must be done quickly. The easiest way is to spread it for 10-20 minutes on a cotton towel, but not on paper napkins.
3. The next step is cutting (if it is decided to freeze chopped parsley). It can be finely chopped with a knife – separately tender twigs with leaves and rough stems. If you freeze whole branches, they can be used for decoration.
4. Next, the raw materials are laid out in small portioned packages, and the branches are simply wrapped with cling film. You can, of course, collect all the chopped greens in one package, but it’s easier to use each serving separately. The bags are placed in the freezer.
5. Chopped greens are very convenient to arrange in ice molds. They are tightly packed, topped up with water, frozen, and then removed from the molds, poured into a bag for storage. You can fill it not with water, but with oil – such ice floes are good to use when stewing meat or preparing stews. So you can freeze not just one parsley, but a whole mixture of herbs, adding chopped garlic if desired.
6. If you do not need to maintain the appearance, then it is very convenient to chop the greens with a blender, then you do not need to add water to the ice molds, the parsley’s own juice will freeze.

The roots are also frozen – they are pre-cleaned, cut into small pieces, kept in the air for several minutes to dry the sections.

Video “Harvesting parsley for the winter”

From this video you will learn how to properly freeze parsley for the winter.

Pickling

Our ancestors knew exactly how to pickle parsley for the winter, because they did not have refrigerators. They do this even now, but you need to remember that first they put the salted parsley in the dish, then they try it, and only then, if necessary, salt it:

1. Grass is prepared for salting, as for all preparations: cut, sorted, washed, dried, finely cut.
2. Then the chopped parsley mass is mixed with salt, and for every 5 parts of greens, 1 part of salt is taken.
3. The mixture is tightly placed in a jar, without fail leaving room for the juice that stands out, tightly closed with a lid. Stored in the refrigerator.

There is another recipe that uses more salt. It is recommended to apply in layers: 1 cm of salt is poured on the bottom, a centimeter layer of parsley is placed on top (dill is also salted), then salt again, there should be salt under the lid.

Drying

Dried parsley is able to retain its aroma and color; it is not for nothing that this method of harvesting herbs has been and remains very popular. They say that there are fewer nutrients left than when frozen, but dried sprigs of parsley, dill, and other herbs are often put into pickles when harvesting vegetables.

You can dry whole branches by hanging small portioned bouquets upside down in a shady place or a ventilated room. And you can finely chop, and separately dry the leaves with thin twigs, rough stems, roots.

Dried leaves are not put in salads, they are usually used to prepare hot first and second courses, so many housewives believe that it is not necessary to wash the grass before drying, especially since excess moisture complicates the process.

Parsley is enough to sort out, shake off the ground, cut. Then it is laid out in a thin layer on trays or baking sheets covered with paper (preferably parchment). Trays determine a shaded place, periodically mix the grass with your hands. After 2-3 days, dry parsley can be poured into a jar, closed with a lid. Store at room temperature, out of direct sunlight.

If conditions do not allow drying in this way, the oven can be used ajar and heated to 60°C. The best results will be given by an electric dryer, specially designed for harvesting fruits, herbs, vegetables.

Pickling

This method allows you to cook a whole spicy dish that can be safely offered with meat, fish, vegetables:

1. First, jars are prepared: washed, disinfected, dried.
2. Then fragrant horseradish leaves, currants, cherries are laid out on the bottom, and chopped prepared parsley is placed on top.
3. Then it is poured with marinade. For it, salt is dissolved in water (1 tablespoon of salt is taken for 1 liter of water), a couple of bay leaves, a few peas of allspice are added, brought to a boil, vinegar (1 tablespoon) is poured in, removed from heat.
4. The jars are covered with lids, sterilized for 15 minutes (for a half-liter jar), rolled up with lids, and after cooling they are put away for storage. If you do not roll it up, but close it with nylon lids, you will have to store it in the cold.

In oil

Refined vegetable oil acts as an excellent preservative, it does not allow air to penetrate the cut grass, thereby preserving it perfectly. Greens preserved in this way become ready-made good dressing for salads with butter, which gradually absorbs the aroma of parsley.

The cut grass is put in a glass jar, not tamped, but poured with plenty of oil on top. It should penetrate inside, displacing all the air around the leaves, remaining in a thick layer above the greens. You need to store such a blank in the refrigerator.

Fresh parsley cannot be stored for a long time, it gradually loses moisture, fades, turns yellow, so it must be prepared for the winter at the very height of the green season, that is, in the first half of summer.

Whichever method is chosen, it is advisable to process on the same day that the branches were cut, which ensures that the nutrients, color and aroma are preserved.